CV Advice
The 8 CV Mistakes That Are Costing You Interviews
Small errors. Large consequences. Here is what recruiters see when they read most CVs.
A CV is usually given about six seconds of attention by a recruiter. In those six seconds, they are looking for reasons to reject it. Most CVs give them several. The mistakes below are not exotic edge cases — they are the same errors that appear in hundreds of CVs every week. Each one reduces your chance of getting an interview.
A generic professional summary
"Results-driven professional with a passion for excellence and a proven track record of delivering value in fast-paced environments." This sentence says nothing. It could describe anyone. Recruiters read it and immediately discount the CV. Your summary should state your specific role, your most impressive achievement, and what you are looking for. Three sentences. No buzzwords. Something a recruiter could not find on anyone else's CV.
No metrics or numbers
"Managed a team." "Improved sales performance." "Led marketing campaigns." These bullets are invisible. They tell a recruiter nothing about the scale, impact, or context of your work. Every bullet that can be quantified should be quantified. Not "managed a team" but "managed a team of 8 engineers across three time zones." Not "improved sales" but "increased MRR from £40k to £120k in 14 months." Numbers make your experience real. Without them, you are just claiming things.
Too long
Two pages is the maximum for most roles. One page is better for anyone with under five years of experience. A three or four page CV signals poor editing judgement, not extensive experience. Recruiters do not read page three. They do not even usually read all of page two. The rule is simple: everything on your CV must earn its place. If a job from seven years ago is not directly relevant to the role you are applying for, it gets one line or it gets cut.
Wrong format for the context
A creative portfolio-style CV is appropriate for some design roles. It is a disaster for corporate, finance, legal, or engineering roles where ATS systems are common. The reverse is also true: a plain text CV for a senior UX designer role signals low attention to presentation. Understand the context you are applying into. For most professional roles in 2026, a clean single-column DOCX with standard formatting is the safest choice. Save the two-column Figma design for the few roles where it genuinely helps.
Buzzword overload
Synergised. Leveraged. Passionate. Strategic. Dynamic. Innovative. These words have been used so many times they have lost all meaning. Recruiters skip over them automatically. Worse, heavy buzzword use makes your CV feel untrustworthy — it looks like you are hiding a lack of substance behind impressive-sounding language. Replace every buzzword with a specific action or result. "Passionate about data" becomes "built three internal dashboards that reduced reporting time by 40%."
Not matching keywords from the job description
ATS systems filter CVs by keyword match. If the job description mentions "stakeholder management" twelve times and your CV never uses that phrase, you may be filtered out before a human sees your application. For every role you apply for, read the job description carefully and ensure your CV uses the same vocabulary. Not synonyms — the exact same words. This is not gaming the system. It is communicating in the language the recruiter used.
An unprofessional email address
partyguy1992@hotmail.com is a real email address on a real CV that was rejected in under three seconds. Your email address is the first contact detail a recruiter sees. It should be firstname.lastname@gmail.com or similar. If your name is common and variations are taken, add an initial or a number at the end. Nothing else. No nicknames, no dates of birth, no references to hobbies or interests. A recruiter will not email you if your address undermines their confidence before they start typing.
Inconsistent or unexplained dates
Gaps in employment are fine. Unexplained gaps raise questions. If you took time off for health reasons, caregiving, travel, or further study — say so briefly. A one-line note ("Career break: primary caregiver for family member, 2023–2024") is far less damaging than a conspicuous blank. Also check that your date formats are consistent throughout: "Jan 2022 – Mar 2024" everywhere, not a mix of "01/22 – March 2024" and "2022–present". Inconsistency looks careless.
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